All over the globe, compa­nies are placing a greater emphasis on global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment than ever before. There are many reasons for this, the main one being that the need for global leaders has increased expo­nen­tially in every major industry. 

In order to develop global leaders within an orga­ni­za­tion, the most successful approach is to create and launch a global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment (GLD) program for company employees. But imple­menting this type of program comes with a unique set of chal­lenges. Many compa­nies feel that their GLD program is only moder­ately effec­tive, if at all. 

To ensure the success of a customer’s GLD program, eurac follows a set of best prac­tice prin­ci­ples in setting up a program. Prin­ciple 9, among others of these best prac­tice prin­ci­ples, is to imple­ment peer coaching. 

It’s no surprise that commu­ni­ca­tion and global lead­er­ship go hand in hand. A lack of commu­ni­ca­tion within a GLD program could be why your program is falling short of expec­ta­tions. Incor­po­rating peer coaching sessions within the program is a simple yet elegant solu­tion to boost commu­ni­ca­tion prac­tices. 

In this article, we take a closer look at peer coaching, why it’s so bene­fi­cial to any GLD program, and how you can struc­ture a peer coaching session in your own company. 

What is Peer Coaching?

Peer coaching is the prac­tice of profes­sional colleagues coaching each other in order to build new skills and improve on current ones. Here is a more thor­ough defi­n­i­tion of peer coaching from the Asso­ci­a­tion for Super­vi­sion and Curriculum Devel­op­ment (ASDC):

“Peer coaching is a confi­den­tial process through which two or more profes­sional colleagues work together to reflect on current prac­tices; expand, refine, and build new skills; share ideas; teach one another; conduct class­room research; or solve prob­lems in the work­place…”

Contrary to what you might think, the word coaching does not imply that one indi­vidual holds a higher status than the others. There is no single coach in this situ­a­tion. Rather, each person acts as a coach to his or her peers in one way or another. 

The Bene­fits of Peer Coaching

Peer coaching is a prac­tice that is most often used in an educa­tional setting among teaching profes­sionals. Just as it shows results in the class­room, the same is true of peer coaching between colleagues in corpo­rate envi­ron­ments. 

Promoting commu­ni­ca­tion among colleagues is one of the main bene­fits, but it’s certainly not the only one. There are five main bene­fits that can result from facil­i­tating peer coaching sessions within a company setting:

1. Providing peer-to-peer feed­back and insight
2. Empow­ering indi­vid­uals to focus on devel­oping new skills
3. Improving company dynamics through team moti­va­tion
4. Enabling lead­er­ship devel­op­ment among peer mentors
5. Improving team perfor­mance thanks to clearer expec­ta­tions

How Peer Coaching Bene­fits a Global Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment Program and Its Partic­i­pants

Let’s look more in-depth into each of the bene­fits mentioned above, specif­i­cally how they can benefit the partic­i­pants of a company’s GLD program. 

Benefit #1: Providing Peer-to-Peer Feed­back

Receiving feed­back from a manager is to be expected, but receiving feed­back from peers is not nearly as common. It should be, though, since construc­tive crit­i­cism from just one source offers only a single perspec­tive. A team is not solely comprised of one perspec­tive, but many. Research even shows that teams perform better when diver­gent perspec­tives are present.

By imple­menting peer coaching sessions into a global lead­er­ship program, there is the poten­tial for feed­back to come from all angles. This provides a great deal of insight, espe­cially since team members are often more directly involved in the project at hand than a manager.

Benefit #2: Empow­ering Indi­vid­uals

By estab­lishing a fixed job descrip­tion for each employee, a company is putting a limit on employee poten­tial. Work­place skills are not meant to be one-dimen­sional, espe­cially in the modern work­place where roles are becoming much more fluid. 

By creating oppor­tu­ni­ties for peer mentoring, you are empow­ering your employees to learn new skills. And not from a text­book or a power­point presen­ta­tion, but from each other. Not only does this empower employees to learn new skills, but it creates the oppor­tu­nity to share knowl­edge and act as the teacher. 

Benefit #3: Improving Company Dynamics

“There’s no I in team” may be a cliche, but there is a great deal of truth to this state­ment. In order to be successful, a team must work together and moti­vate each other to keep pushing forward. Creating this team dynamic is yet another perk for GLD partic­i­pants with regular peer coaching sessions.

However, you should know that in any team, conflict can arise. Each team member comes with a unique person­ality, and heads can butt from time to time. One of the inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies of a global leader is to learn how to manage these differ­ences and handle conflict in a construc­tive way. Peer coaching sessions provide the perfect setting for effec­tive and construc­tive conflict reso­lu­tion.

Benefit #4: Enabling Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment

Although many indi­vid­uals aspire to be leaders, the chance of actu­ally becoming a leader on a global scale is unlikely without proper mentoring. There is some debate on whether peer-to-peer mentoring has the poten­tial to create leaders. A research publi­ca­tion called Mentoring: A model for lead­er­ship devel­op­ment? suggests that it does:

“There is agree­ment that mentoring seems to offer signifi­cant benefits for leaders, including: role social­i­sa­tion, reduced feel­ings of isola­tion, profes­sional devel­op­ment, increased job satis­fac­tion, improved lead­er­ship skills and lead­er­ship-capacity building…”

Peer coaching sessions create oppor­tu­ni­ties for employees, not only to be the mentee, but also to be the mentor. This fact in itself provides the ground­work for lead­er­ship devel­op­ment. 

Benefit #5: Improving Team Perfor­mance

A major reason for failing to meet goals is a lack of clear expec­ta­tions. When a team member is uncer­tain of his or her role, the ability to meet the team’s perfor­mance goals is nearly impos­sible. Creating a culture of open­ness through peer coaching sessions sets clear goals and expec­ta­tions, thereby improving overall team perfor­mance. 

Example Struc­ture of a Peer Coaching Session Within a GLD Program

Every­thing we’ve covered thus far points to one ques­tion: How can your company set up such peer coaching sessions to benefit all partic­i­pants involved?

Although there is no offi­cial right or wrong way to run a peer coaching session, the struc­ture of a session does matter. Session struc­ture deter­mines a lot, like how involved the partic­i­pants remain, how conflict is resolved, and the overall effec­tive­ness and outcomes that come about.

Let’s focus on the classic peer-to-peer coaching session. 

In this model, there is one group leader facil­i­tating the session, but there can always be more for larger groups if need be. Each session can range from 60 to 90 minutes, and it is suggested that at least six sessions are held for the dura­tion of the GLD program. Split the partic­i­pants into groups of four to six indi­vid­uals — any more than six per group has been found to lack effec­tive­ness.

What Each Session Should Include

The main thing to remember is that small groups and regular meet­ings are a must, as is orga­ni­za­tion. At the start of each session, every partic­i­pant should receive an outline of how the session is expected to run, including topics of discus­sion, time­frames, and hopeful outcomes. 

Just as every orga­ni­za­tion is different, the peer coaching sessions for each orga­ni­za­tion will look different as well. Avoid using generic program content; this has not been known to create an atmos­phere of excel­lence. The best thing that can come from using generic content is the creation of generic, mediocre managers and leaders. 

The general struc­ture of 60 to 90-minute sessions with groups of no more than six is a good rule of thumb to follow. When it comes to the actual content, it is up to you to create your own peer session mate­rial. The other option is to work with a lead­er­ship school that can help you with devel­oping the struc­ture and topics of each coaching session. 

How to Assess the Success of a Peer Coaching Session

One of the most common mistakes in regards to peer coaching sessions is failing to track results. In many cases, this results from failing to estab­lish clear-cut goals from the start. You need to estab­lish the exact results you’re hoping to see from these sessions.

Aside from estab­lishing goals, one of the most effec­tive methods for assessing success is to assess each partic­i­pant indi­vid­u­ally. This can be done at the start and end of each session. At the very least, it should be done at the start and end of the program as a whole. By assessing each partic­i­pant, you’ll be able to gauge how peer coaching has affected each person involved. 

According to Forbes’ smart strate­gies for running a peer coaching group, “group coaching is a syner­gistic expe­ri­ence for indi­vidual progress.” Although this is a group process, measuring the success of the group as a whole cannot be done without measuring the success of each partic­i­pant. 

Peer Coaching Sessions by eurac

At eurac, we are focused on creating global leaders by equip­ping orga­ni­za­tions with the tools and resources they need to deliver a successful global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment program. As mentioned, peer coaching should be included in every GLD program. We can help by setting up sessions in which the leaders are able to learn from each other through shared expe­ri­ences. 

To find out more about how we can equip your company with a customized GLD program, get in touch with us here. 

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